Dissatisfaction in Marriage in the Late 1800's

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Recommended: Women role in 1800

In 1892 Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote a short story titled “The Yellow Wallpaper” soon after that in 1894 Kate Chopin wrote a short story titled “The Story of an Hour”. In both of these stories the author presents women who feel trapped by their husbands. Both the unnamed narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, a woman with rising mental issues, and Mrs. Mallard a happily married woman, are controlled by their husbands, and both find themselves finding freedom at a very high cost. Once they have that freedom, they are no longer able to enjoy it, do to, the unconventional way that they achieve it.

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” it is very obvious right from the beginning that the wife who is an unnamed narrator feels very repressed in her marriage. Her husband, John, is a physician and often speaks to her in a patronizing and demeaning manner. For example, she tells us that “John laughs at me” (Gilman 459); moreover, as a wife, she should expect “that in a marriage.” (Gilman 459). Her comments cause readers to recognize that she is dissatisfied in her marriage.

Another good example of this demeaning tone would be, she said that John called her “a blessed little goose” (Gilman 462); this also shows how he degrades her down as far as to speak to her as one would a young child. And like a child she was required to do everything he said because he was the man of the house and a doctor both of which made him right. She didn’t even have control of her own body, or her own medical treatment in this story. It is possible that he loves her, but this is simply how a marriage was expected to be during these times.

Along with the control over her body, John also controlled the other aspect of her life includi...

... middle of paper ...

... social expectations. In Kate Chopin’s “Story of an Hour,” the narrator first escaped through the death of her husband and then through her own death. It is not that she doesn’t lover her husband. She does experience momentary grief, but through her grief and fear, she gets a glimpse of what her future could look like. She understands that she will finally be able to live for herself. So, when she finds out her husband is alive, she dies of a heart attack. In both of these stories the narrators show how giving a certain situation people can escape their own forms of hell.

Works Cited

Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.” Literature Reading, Reacting, Writing. Ed.

Kirszner & Mandell. Boston: 2008. 226-28. Print

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Literature Reading, Reacting,

Writing. Ed. Kirszner & Mandell. Boston: 2008. 459-71. Print

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